In snowboarding a rider descends a snowy slope on a single gliding board that is attached to the rider's feet using special boots set onto bindings mounted on the snowboard. Modern snowboarding developed in the 1960s and the 1970s and became a Winter Olympic Sport in 1998. Although a relatively new sport, snowboarding now ranks second only to skiing among winter sports in the United States. The genesis of the sport has been attributed to Sherman Poppen, an engineer in Muskegon, Mich. who invented a toy for his daughter in 1965 by connecting two skis together side-by-side and attaching a rope to one end to provide control while gliding downhill. Dubbed the “snurfer,” the toy proved so popular among his daughter's friends that Poppen licensed the idea to a manufacturer that sold about a million snurfers over the next decade. In 1968 Poppen received U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,274 for a “Surf-Type Snow Ski.”
U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,204, to Weber and directed to a “Mono-Ski,” issued on Aug. 19, 1975. The snowboard, or mono-ski, disclosed therein featured releasable boot bindings to secure the rider's boots to the snowboard.
Snowboarding's growing popularity is reflected in the fact that “In 1985 only seven percent of U.S. ski areas allowed snowboarding, a situation reflected in Europe . . . . Now, virtually all ski resorts in North America and Europe welcome snowboarders, and many have constructed special terrain parts with jumps and other features that encourage boarders to hone their skills and showcase their techniques.” Snowboarding Wild Rides, Phyllis McIntosh, English Teaching Forum, No. 1, pages 35-42.
In modern snowboarding a rider stands with both feet fixed to a single board, and the gravity-propelled rider negotiates a path down a snow-covered slope. A particularly important aspect of controlling the snowboard is rotating the snowboard about its longitudinal axis, thereby selecting which lateral edge of the snowboard engages the snow, the angle of engagement, and the orientation of the snowboard with respect to the slope of the terrain.
In order to control the orientation of the snowboard, the rider wears boots that are firmly secured to the snowboard transverse to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard. In this stance, the rider can raise the toe-side edge of the snowboard by leaning backward and rotating his/her feet, for example, and can rotate the board in pitch, yaw, and roll by appropriate foot movement. To enable precise control of the snowboard, the rider's boots are firmly attached to the board with snowboard bindings. Many different binding mechanisms have been developed. Snowboard bindings are generally categorized as either strap bindings (also called conventional bindings) wherein a pair of frames having straps for releasably securing the rider's boots is attached to the board, and step-in bindings wherein typically a cleat mechanism is integrated into the sole of the boots and a complementary cleat-engagement mechanism is attached to the snowboard.
A strap binding typically includes a baseplate that receives the sole of the boot, a high back that extends upwardly from the baseplate, and strap assemblies for tightly and releasably securing the boots to the binding. The base portion attaches to the board, frequently in an adjustable manner such that the rider can select a particular angle between the boot axis and the board axis, and will generally include integral side walls that provide lateral support to the attached boot. The high back is important particularly when the rider is using soft boots, as it enables the rider to raise the toe-side edge of the board by leaning backwardly against the high back portion. Typically, two strap assemblies are attached to the baseplate side walls. The strap assemblies are configured to extend over the rider's boots to secure the snowboard boots to the snowboard. The first pair of straps extends generally around the ankle portion of the boot, and the second pair extends generally over the toe portion of the boot.
A common problem encountered with strap bindings is that as the rider mounts the snowboard by stepping onto the base portion of the frame, the straps tend to get in the way, sometimes becoming trapped behind or underneath the rider's boots, requiring the rider to adjust her feet and attempt to pull the straps out and over the boots. This task can be particularly difficult and frustrating when the rider is mounting a snowboard in the field, for example, after dismounting the snowboard to traverse a level portion of a run. In this case, the boots, straps, binding, and snowboard may be covered with snow, the rider is typically wearing gloves and bulky clothing, and the snowboard and rider may be situated on an inclined and/or slippery snowy field. Under these conditions, properly orienting and securing the binding straps can be particularly challenging.
In addition to the physical difficulties associated with properly mounting the snowboard, physical damage and undesirable wear and tear can be caused to the strap assembly. The straps, and particularly the clasping mechanism for securing the straps, can be damaged, for example, if the rider inadvertently steps on the straps or imposes sharp bends in the straps between the boot and the high back portion of the frame. Moreover, the process of pulling the straps (including a clasp mechanism) out from between the boot and the frame can result in unnecessary stresses and strains in the strap assembly.